Data breaches → Nival
Was your data in the Nival breach?
2016 · nival.com · ~1,535,473 accounts exposedHigh severity · 7/10
Nival (nival.com) suffered a data breach in 2016 that exposed around 1,535,473 accounts. If you had an account, some of your personal data may be circulating in leaked databases. The fastest way to know is to check your own email — free, in about 30 seconds, no password required.
What happened
In February 2016, the Russian gaming company Nival was the target of an attack which was consequently detailed on Reddit. Allegedly protesting "the foreign policy of Russia in regards to Ukraine", Nival was one of several Russian sites in the breach and impacted over 1.5M accounts including sensitive personal information.
Breach details sourced from Have I Been Pwned, the industry-standard breach database. Risk analysis by Nullivo.
What was exposed, and why it matters
Not all breaches carry the same risk — what matters is which fields leaked. Here is what the Nival breach exposed and what each item actually enables:
Date of birth is a permanent identifier used to verify identity by phone. Combined with a name and address it is often enough to impersonate you.
Links this leak to your other accounts — a reused username lets anyone build a profile of you across platforms.
Puts you on spam and phishing lists, and confirms to attackers that you hold an account with this service — which makes impersonation emails more believable.
Also listed in this breach: Avatars, Dates of birth, Email addresses, Genders, Names, Spoken languages, Usernames, Website activity.
What to do if you were affected
These steps are ordered for this specific breach — the most urgent action given what leaked comes first.
- Dates of birth: Never confirm your date of birth to an inbound caller — hang up and dial the organisation back on a published number.
- Names and usernames: Search your usual username to see what else it exposes, and use distinct handles for sensitive accounts.
- Email addresses: Treat any message referencing this service with suspicion, and never act on links in unexpected emails.
- Check whether your own email appears in this breach — run a free scan to confirm before you spend time on the steps above.
How urgent is this now?
This breach is over 10 years old. Old credentials still cause harm — leaked passwords from a decade ago are still tried against new accounts every day.
Remember: a breach can't be "un-leaked" — once a database is out, it exists in countless copies. The goal is to make the leaked data useless: change what can be changed, lock down what can't, and remove what has been republished.
Frequently asked questions
What data was exposed in the Nival breach?
The Nival breach exposed dates of birth, names and usernames, email addresses. Date of birth is a permanent identifier used to verify identity by phone. Combined with a name and address it is often enough to impersonate you.
How many people were affected by the Nival breach?
Around 1,535,473 accounts were exposed, making it a large breach.
What should I do if I had a Nival account?
Never confirm your date of birth to an inbound caller — hang up and dial the organisation back on a published number. You can check whether your own email appears in this breach with a free Nullivo scan — no password required.
Breaches that exposed similar data
If the Nival breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.
- Was your data in the ClixSense breach? (2016, ~2,424,784 accounts)
- Was your data in the Mate1.com breach? (2016, ~27,393,015 accounts)
- Was your data in the Ashley Madison breach? (2015, ~30,811,934 accounts)
- Was your data in the Deezer breach? (2019, ~229,037,936 accounts)
- Was your data in the gPotato breach? (2007, ~2,136,520 accounts)
- Was your data in the Foxy Bingo breach? (2008, ~252,216 accounts)